Archive for February 2010

With less than two weeks to go before Melrose Place returns with fresh episodes, the CW Network is loading up its YouTube channel with teaser videos to highlight the show’s new tone. Aiming for a lighter mood, one video focuses on the romantic entanglements awaiting the characters as new faces arrive on the scene. While David and Lauren continue their budding romance it looks like Riley will try to win Jonah back from Ella (boring!) but may be distracted by new resident hunk Dr. Drew, played by Nick Zano (marginally less boring). Don’t expect Ella to stand by while Riley reclaims Jonah. Our Miss Simms whips out the sexy lingerie and fights for her guy (with a curly new ‘do, no less!). A newly widowed Michael tries to rekindle the dysfunctional flame with ex-wife Jane while Amanda gets a dose of grown-up canoodling with actor Billy Campbell, who co-starred with Sela Ward in the 1999-2002 series Once and Again. Let’s hope Ella isn’t into older guys, for her sake. Check out more Melrose teasers at YouTube here.

With less than a month to go before Melrose Place returns with the first of the final episodes of its (hopefully) first season, the spotlight will be on hunky actor Nick Zano to see if he can bring in new viewers. He’s featured briefly in The CW Network’s commercials previewing the new episodes and it seems he’s going to play Drew Pragin, a new doctor working with Michael (Thomas Calabro) and Lauren (Stephanie Jacobsen). Should David (Shaun Sipos) be concerned? Maybe not. One would assume he’s been brought in to replace the booted Auggie (Colin Egglesfield) and provide the requisite shirtless eye candy, but he’s hardly a marquee name. I still say Melrose needs to do some newsworthy stunt casting to balance out the new talent. He’s been in Final Destination and 7th Heaven, but viewers will probably recognize him most from his recent stint as the young boyfriend of Courtney Cox’s character on ABC’s hit comedy Cougar Town. He was pretty good at playing a goodhearted suitor on that show, so it will be interesting to see if he does some version of this character on Melrose. Judging from the Cougar Town screen capture here, Nick’s sure gonna fit in at the Melrose pool. The complete scene with Courtney can be viewed at YouTube here.

I noticed an article in next week’s TV Guide that didn’t give Melrose Place fans much hope that the show will be renewed at the end of the season, but I’m sticking to my plan of thinking positively and putting out ideas that might add excitement to the show, even if production has finished for now. I’ve been thinking about the different characters and what we know about them and found myself wanting to know more about Lauren (Stephanie Jacobsen). We know that she’s smart (except for the whole hooking thing, of course), obviously gorgeous and dedicated to her father, but we don’t know whether she has any relatives who might pop up unexpectedly to make her life a living nightmare. Lauren is Melrose’s damsel in distress and the last thing she needs is more complications to keep her from fixing her life.

Grace Park

Here’s where I think the Melrose writers could spin the time-honored soap tradition of introducing a troublemaking sister to stir the pot even more. After all, the ploy worked very well on the original show when Laura Leighton was introduced as Jane’s twisted sister Sydney. The character was popular enough to be the central figure around which the new show was launched, so Melrose should bring in a sexy sister who envies the favored position Lauren has enjoyed in the Yung family, stays with Lauren for a while and sets her sights on David. My wish list for casting the role included Kelly Hu, the sexy actress from “X-Men United” and “The Scorpion King,” and Lucy Liu if the character had a sophisticated, disapproving tone. Ultimately, though, I think Grace Park, who played the fighter pilot Boomer on Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica would be good in the role. She showed a sexy side in the photo shoot for Maxim shown on the YouTube screen capture above and I think she has a look similar to Stephanie Jacobsen’s. She also has a good following among the Battlestar fanboys, so maybe adding her to the cast would attract new viewers. Those unfamiliar with Grace’s pin-up potential should check out the full video here.